Oil sector pushes Ogra to lead fuel digitisation

KARACHI: The oil sector has expressed its inability to carry out the digitisation of retail petroleum outlets under the government’s anti-smuggling policy due to a lack of necessary manpower and capacity.

The Executive Committee of the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) has strongly recommended that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), as the regulator of the oil industry, should take the lead on this project, the OCAC said in a letter to Ogra.

“We are committed to supporting this endeavour and will be available to assist where possible,” the council noted, adding that globally, such digitization efforts are typically managed by regulators. For example, in Turkey, the digitisation of retail outlets was led by the country’s regulatory authority, ensuring consistency and oversight. The OCAC added that it currently lacks the manpower and capacity to undertake this task independently.

On the development of a mobile application to verify legal petrol stations, the OCAC shared that it has contracted the IT company ‘TechSurge’ and is on track to meet the December 7, 2024, deadline set by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

The OCAC also requested Ogra’s assistance in recovering Rs3 million from non-member oil marketing companies (OMCs) to ensure timely application rollout, stressing that this payment must be received within two weeks.

It added that it is working on a system to track petroleum product movements via tank lorries from refineries to depots and retail outlets. In this context, it has engaged logistics fintech Trukkr to explore a tracker-based solution.

The federal government has tasked the FBR with curbing illegal smuggling activities, focusing on developing a mobile application to authenticate legal petrol pumps, implementing technology to track petroleum product movements, and monitoring pump sales by OMCs in real-time through cost-effective technological solutions.